


Hallow's Light

by The_Changamire



Category: RWBY, Terraria
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26018752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Changamire/pseuds/The_Changamire
Summary: Following her defeat at the hands of Terraria's Hero, the Empress of Light finds herself in a world full of Corruption, and sets out to cleanse it.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

Pain was not a feeling the Empress of Light was accustomed to.

Maybe it had been, a long time ago, before the Hallow made her its Champion, but she could not recall any memories of the days before the Hallow's calling.

Where was she?

The fae goddess found herself laying on a grassy surface, facing the night sky, with no idea how she'd gotten there. The last thing she remembered was descending (or was it ascending? she knew not) from the Hallow's depths to cleanse what was surely an Impurity.

She met, instead of an Impurity, a Celestial made flesh.

The Empress of Light, despite being one of the newer Deities created solely to govern the destruction of Impurity, still recognized the signs of a fellow being of immense power, and indeed, the Hero of Terraria boasted a power unlike any other. Under normal circumstances, that would be of no concern to the fae goddess, except for the fact that the Hero was clothed in armor forged from gods, and bore weapons that harnessed the power of the World itself.

Even then, the Hero only won barely, but won nonetheless, vanquishing the Empress from the realms of the living.

She faintly remembered asking the Celestial made flesh to bury her in the Hallow before letting her light fade.

This was not the Hallow.

For one, she could no longer _feel_ the Hallow's presence, which set off alarm bells immediately. How long had she slept, that the Crimson of the Corruption had wiped out the Hallow?

Only, she could not sense either Corruption of Crimson either.

That, somehow, was even more unnerving.

Rising from from where she lay, the Empress of Light nearly fell to her knees almost immediately. Finally focusing on herself, it became evident that the many wounds she had obtained while fighting the Hero had not left her.

At the very least, it confirmed she was not in the Afterlife.

Pushing away such thoughts, the Empress closed her eyes and focused for a moment, and she began to shrink from her massive figure to a size more suited to an adult human. The fae goddess had learned, from who or what or where she did not know, that when greatly injured, it was better to condense her form into a smaller one as to increase her recovery speed.

Having done that, and already feeling the slight effects of her sped up healing-factor, the Empress finally began to take in her surroundings.

She found herself in a forest, untainted by either Corruption or Crimson, by the looks of it. The trees were as green as the grass she now toed, and the night sky shone above her filled with clouds and a broken moon-

Catching sight of the broken celestial sphere, the Empress froze, staring at it. The Moon, the indomitable domain of the Eldest One, left in ruin? Even as she faced the Hero, after the vanquishing of the Eldest One, the Moon had remained intact.

What had happened while she slept?

She had no time to ponder the question, however, for that was when the pack of what she would be later told were Beowolves made themselves known.

Creeping in from the edges of the clearing, they stalked up to her, growling with animalistic rage, as if personally slighter by her presence, and the Empress froze.

But not in fear, no.

She trembled in anticipation.

_**Corruption.** _

Wherever, or _whenever_ she had been sent to upon her defeat at the Hero's hand, it seemed to be clear that she'd been sent to this world to do what she had been chosen to do all those millennia ago.

Cleanse it.

And, despite herself still being injured, she let the Hallow's Light gather in her hands, and spread her wings and rose to the sky in all her blinding, luminescent radiance.

The Corruption was here.

And, unfortunately for it, so was she.

* * *

It was morning, and Ozpin had barely slept at all.

He wished he could say that wasn't a common occurrence, but it happened all too often, which was why he was thankful for Beacon's seemingly never-ending coffee supply.

 _It might be the only thing that keeps me going at this point_ , he thought ruefully to himself. It was probably true; almost all his actual reasons for accepting the God of Light's proposal so long ago were now either dead, in possession of the enemy, or was the actual enemy itself.

Ozma's thoughts nearly strayed towards a memory of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman, and Ozpin just as quickly shoved it away.

Tapping his cane rhythmically against the floor, the Headmaster of Beacon hummed to himself as the elevator took him up to his office above the rest of the school. Arriving at his destination, he strode out out the open doors and made for his desk, only pausing minutely in mild surprise at Glynda's presence. "Professor Goodwitch, it;s an odd thing to see you up this early." And early it was; the sun had barely crested the horizon, and Glynda almost never woke up before a set time.

Unless, of course, these was a situation that called for the utmost urgency.

"Ozpin," she greeted hastily, increasing his ever-growing worry. "I was just about to call you. Something odd is happening in Emerald Forest that I think requires your input… rather desperately."

Quickly making her way over to him, she handed over the tablet she was holding that displayed the camera feeds of the many devices Beacon had hidden in the forest. Ozpin's eyebrows raised in concern when he noticed several of them, all in the same sector, had gone out, while the rest in that sector were seemingly blinded by a bright light. "Where those always like that?"

Glynda shook her head. "I only noticed it when it woke me up half an hour ago. The lights were flashing rather quickly, which was cause for alarm on it's own. The other cameras being out in the same area only made me more certain that something had gone wrong." Swiping a finger on the screen, she displayed a previous recording made prior to the cameras offlining or blinding, and Ozpin's eyes narrowed. "Those Beowolves… they're hunting something."

Nodding in agreement, Glynda switched to another tab, handed the device to him, and stalked back to Ozpin's desk to retrieve her staff. Ozpin himself made for the elevator doors again, keeping them open until his fellow colleague joined him, and they begun the journey down. They stood in silence for a few moments before Glynda turned to him again. "What could possibly have agitated all those Grimm?"

Ozpin didn't have an answer.

* * *

The new Creatures of Corruption were weak, even more so than usual.

It confused them Empress mildly; for even the various Champions of Corruption the biome would spawn from the land where she hailed from boasted more power than the ones she fought now, though even these weak creatures would occasionally bring forth a Champion of Corruption, usually in the form of a large scorpion, or twin basilisks.

Even in her weakened state, still healing from her fight with Terraria's Hero, her powers were more than enough to purge the Impure creatures from the earth, smiting them with Hallow's Light and scorching the ground where they died, the slowly-spreading Hallow cleansing the earth of their vile presence.

However, what the Impure beasts lacked in strength, they made up for in numbers, throwing themselves at fae goddess numerous times, seemingly uncaring for their own lives son long as the chance to defeat her was an option. And though it galled the Empress, she was growing weary. The small bits of Hallow she had sown were not enough to boost her recovery, and the hordes of Impurity seemed never-ending. At least, at first.

In the end, as the sun rose in the East, as it was wont to do, the hordes of monsters started to become less, and less.

And then, abruptly, there were none left.

Lowering her hands and descending from where she was hovering, the Empress scanned her surroundings one more time, determining the threat of Impurity had been vanquished. Then, judging herself safe, she let herself collapse on one of the small pieces of Hallow, folding in her wings and laying on the patch of familiar biome-earth.

She closed her eyes and slept.

She did not hear the humans arriving.


	2. Chapter 2

Whilst working for Ozpin, and teaching in Beacon Academy as a whole, Glynda Goodwitch had been subject to many a strange thing.

She had witnessed magic of legendary proportions heard of only in fairy tales and the stories they inspired, learned of an enemy who was the source of _at least_ half of the problems currently plaguing both the Kingdoms and Remnant as a whole, had borne witness to the beginnings of the world's first Aura transfer, and had broken up more fights between students and cleaned up more Semblance-related messes than she could count.

All those things experienced over the years that she could call herself knowledgeable in, but this?

_This is- I don't even know anymore. What is this, Ozpin?_

The event Glynda was referring to was less an actual event and more like the- well, what appeared to be a literal, living, breathing _fairy_ right out of a book laying seemingly unconscious on a patch of odd grass. A Brothers-damned _fae_ , as if it had sprung right out of the page of a fairytale, dressed in what might have been the skimpiest outfit she had ever seen.

 _By the gods, just looking at her makes me want to slam a rulebook on her head. Look at those clothes, they're practically see-through!_ Although, admittedly, that was in no way a priority at all

"I must admit, It's nice to know some things don't change with you, Glynda."

The aforementioned Headmistress of Beacon blinked momentarily, before turning her head to the side to look at Ozpin, who stood next to her. "...Did I say that out loud?" _Damn, I thought I left that habit behind years ago._

Ozpin chuckled slightly. "You did indeed, not that I blame you. To discover, well… whoever this is..." his small smile faded into his normal examining frown, "I'd imagine it would make anyone forget themselves, at least for a moment."

Turning her gaze back to the mysterious fairy-lady, Glynda studied the sleeping fae with a cautious eye. "And you say you've _never_ seen anyone like her before. Truly, despite everything?"

"Never. During all my time alive, the only intelligent life I've come across was humanity, the Faunus, and, to a lower extent, the Grimm. But she… she's not any of them. Never before has such a Faunus been recorded anywhere on Remnant, and Grimm wouldn't attack one of their own so recklessly."

"And she's most definitely not human or Faunus," Glynda added, and Ozpin nodded. "Whoever, or _whatever_ she is, we need to know, and we must ensure that word of this does not reach our enemies, especially _her_. Who knows what she would do should she discover that we have this woman in our custody?" Though, that brought her to a second point. "Ozpin… what if this woman is working for her? To just appear out of no where, and in vicinity of the Relic? This close to Beacon? This can't be a coincidence." She grimaced at the thought of bringing a possible enemy into the school, and the danger it would bring. "Can we afford the risk, bringing her back?"

Ozpin frowned, once again looking at the fairy-woman, lips pursed into a thin line. "I am… not entirely sure. What you say may be true, Glynda, but…" Here, the Headmaster of Beacon paused, as if recalling something. "I've only met one being whose skin glowed like this, and if this woman is the same as he was, then to leave her out here would be folly, more than you could ever know. All that beside, I will not leave a potential innovent out here to succumb to easily healed wounds"

Nodding at, the Headmistress pulled out her riding crop. "Then we're taking her back with us. I hope you know what you're doing, Ozpin."

"So do I, Glynda. So do I."

Striding forward and bringing for his cane, he began to systematically crater parts of the ground surround the strange patch of grass beneath the fae. Once he was done, Glynda herself stepped forward, and with the wave of her riding crop, picked it up with her Semblance.

"Do you-"

"I have it, Ozpin, don't worry." Maneuvering the hovering chunks of earth behind her, Glynda nodded her head in Ozpin's direction. "Ready when you are."

Ozpin nodded back. "Let's not keep anyone waiting, shall we? I imagine this woman would like a bed to awake from."

With that, they headed back to Beacon, the fae trailing behind them. Entering the school through one of the lesser-known entrances and carefully making their way through the halls and avoiding staff and students alike, the Headmaster and Headmistress of Beacon headed up to Ozpin's office and the medical supplies that lay within.

Just to be sure, when they laid the fairy-woman on the med cot, they strapped her to it with the experimental semblance-restraining cuffs James had gifted them some time ago, and Ozpin was thankful for it.

Because, if this woman was related to who he thought she was, then he was running out of time.

Ozpin had not been lying to Glynda when he said that he had only met someone with a similar tone of skin once before. He very much remembered how the God of Light glowed, just like the fae they had found, and that frightened him almost as much as losing to Salem did- why did this fairy bear such a likeness to the Brother God? Was she a herald? A messenger? An angel come to prophecy humanity's doom?

Ozpin was not ready. Mankind as a whole was not ready. _He needed more time_ if he was to unite them all and prepare them for the return of the Brother Gods, and the Headmaster of Beacon could only pray that he managed to convince this fae of that fact.

"Ozpin. She's waking, " Glynda called from besides the cot, and Ozpin nodded, standing from his seat.

_I suppose this shall be the chance to plead my case._

Only, he had not taken two steps toward Glynda when the boom of an explosion reached the tower, and the klaxons in the city below began to wail.

* * *

The Empress of Light woke to find herself in yet another unfamiliar environment.

Were she not confident in her own abilities to fend off any threats to her person, and had she sensed the Corruption, she might have attempted a violent escape, but neither of those things were true, so she worried not. Though the fact that she appeared strapped to a bed (is this what a bed was? The Empress was unsure of this) somewhat concerned her, she shrugged before abruptly ripping herself out of her bindings.

The Empress would have let herself fall back into slumber (not because she needed to, because she wanted to sleep and the surface she lay upon was soft) had her sensitive ears not caught the screams of alarms echoing from the distance.

And then she felt the corruption growing from where the screams came, and the Empress of Light awoke fully.

Ignoring the two humans who had turned to her weapons drawn when she had freed herself, the fae goddess stretched her wings, hovering off the ground slightly. Glancing at the humans again, her eyes were drawn to the elder one, whose soul was far older than the woman beside him. The man stared at the Empress for a moment, before silently stepping aside.

"...Do as you will."

Though she needed no permission from the man and most likely would never heed a command uttered, the Empress nodded to the weary soul before shooting from her spot and out the glass window, and she began her decent to the city below.

The air was cool and crisp, though awash with the scent of smoke. The evening, while calm in the sky she flew, did nothing to hide the growth of impurity she felt below.

That was unacceptable.

…

This was not her world, the Empress knew. She knew not how she had come to be here, and knew not how to return. The Hallow and all its creatures would forever be lost to her.

But, despite all that, the Empress did not despair, for she knew her purpose. She might not know how she had been brought to this world, but she knew _why._

She had been brought her to cleanse.

And that was what she would do.

So, above the City of Vale, the Empress of Light spread her wings, summoned the Hallow's Light, and lit up like a second sun in the sky.

And then the sky fell.


End file.
